A PRISONER who claims First Minister Donald Dewar is responsible for his being attacked in jail has been granted legal aid to sue for #10,000.
John McNeil, a drug addict, is getting his legal fees paid to bring his action against the First Minister at Perth Sheriff Court. He blames the former Scottish Secretary for the fact he was slashed across the face by a fellow inmate.
The Scottish Prison Service denies responsibility.
SNP Justice spokesman Roseanna Cunningham said she was amazed the Scottish Legal Aid Board had chosen to support the action by granting legal aid.
She said: ''It is of course important that everyone in society, including those currently serving prison services, has fair and equal access to the law. However, having said that, I certainly know of very many more deserving cases where legal aid has been refused.''
McNeil, 28, from Glasgow, was serving a nine-year term in Perth Prison in August 1996 when he witnessed the aftermath of an assault. He went to the victim's aid and was later taken away by Tayside Police for routine questioning.
It became known within the prison that he had been speaking with the police and he was attacked a short time later.
McNeil's writ said: ''The defenders had a duty to ensure that those serving custodial sentences did not have access to knives or similar instruments.''
It added they ought to have known inmates would have become aware of his discussions with the police ... and that he would then be a likely subject of attack. He claims metal detectors should have been used to find knives.
As a result of the attack, McNeil has a permanent scar on his neck. He claims he has been left nervous and prone to stress, and had to give up his battle against drug addiction.
Mr Dewar, as head of the SPS, will fight the action.
David McKenna, of Victim Support, said: ''There are thousands of victims of violent crime in Scotland every year who don't get legal aid to try and get compensation from the criminal injuries board.''
The Legal Aid Board said it could not discuss individual cases.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article